I would pick AB de Villiers over Chris Gayle in T20s: Harbhajan Singh

Destructive batting, great six hitting ability and the penchant to entertain are qualities possessed by both Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers, who play for the Royal Challengers Bangalore in the Indian Premier League (IPL), However, choosing between the two would be tough right? Not for Mumbai Indians and India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh, who said he would choose ABD over Gayle in his T20 XI.

The Mumbai Indians spinner spoke at the launch event of mobile sporting application Ballr, which is a free to play platform for sports fans involving micro gaming, wherein users have to predict the outcome of a particular moment in a match. Depending upon their cumulative scores and rankings, users stand the chance of winning non-monetary prizes, such as flight tickets, bikes, sports merchandise and a chance to meet their sporting heroes.

Talking about the application, Harbhajan said “it is great to be associated with such an exciting application. I hope fans will enjoy playing the game and also would be looking forward to meeting their favourite stars.”

During the media interaction, he was asked about who he thinks will make it to the top 4 in IPL 2016, to which he replied, “I think us (Mumbai Indians), Sunrisers Hyderabad, Kolkata Knight Riders and Royal Challengers Bangalore will be the four teams to qualify for the playoffs.”

The 2016 edition of the Indian Premier League is moving towards its business end and not less than 6 teams are in the mix to qualify for the playoffs. Sunrisers Hyderabad, Gujarat Lions, Delhi Daredevils, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Kolkata Knight Riders and Mumbai Indians all stand a chance to qualify. Royal Challengers Bangalore meanwhile seem to be the team with all the momentum and have won four out of their last five matches, owing to a certain Virat Kohli.

Upon being asked about how to stop Kohli, Harbhajan said, “the best way to get Kohli out is to not be afraid when bowling to him. He is obviously in great touch and playing at another level. However, we (Mumbai Indians) strategized well against him and managed to stop him.”

Harbhajan also had his say on who he thinks should become the next coach of the Indian team. “Rahul Dravid is a name that immediately comes to my mind along with Zaheer Khan for the bowling department. These two understand Indian cricket really well and could work really well in tandem with each other. However, these are my personal opinions and there are people far wiser than me sitting to take the decision.”

This season’s IPL has been awfully in favour of the batsmen with three batsmen scoring more than 500 runs and with only two spinners in the top 10 wicket takers. Harbhajan, weighing in on the matter, said that the game is loaded heavily on the batsman’s side and the bowlers, especially spinners, have a really hard time. “Bats have become bigger and boundaries have become smaller. I think the people running the game should consider increasing the size of grounds so that hitting sixes is a bit difficult,” he said.

Sportskeeda asked him about how he has managed to remain so energetic and enthusiastic over the years, to which he replied, “I do not know anything else apart from cricket and i want to give my best shot whenever i walk on to the field.”

And then, when we asked him whether he would choose AB de Villiers or Chris Gayle in his T20 XI, Harbhajan said, “I would choose AB de Villiers because he is a 360 degree batsman. Gayle is obviously destructive but AB is just different class altogether.”